Rare spiny daisy find leads to Riverland wetlands recovery project

Ecologists hope to ensure the survival of a small, highly endangered daisy by reintroducing it to a wetlands area of eastern South Australia.

The spiny daisy was considered long extinct until a chance discovery of the native species near Laura in the mid-north of SA.

Environment Department ecologist Doug Bickerton says hundreds of cuttings now are being planted at Banrock Station wetlands, east of Waikerie in the SA Riverland, to boost the conservation effort.

"The fact that we only have six natural populations (all in the mid-north region) is quite risky, it means we have only got six genotypes. If there's some sort of cataclysmic event that one of those populations is wiped out by disease or some sort of misadventure, we've actually lost that particular genotype. That's why it's really important that we have new plantings," he said.

The spiny daisy previously had been documented in 1910 at Overland Corner in the Riverland and its presumed demise after that had been blamed on land clearing and species such as rabbits, sheep and even insects.

The native daisy first was documented on the Burke and Wills expedition in western New South Wales in 1860 and the Overland Corner report from 1910 was an area which is near the present-day Banrock Station, next to the River Murray.

Mr Bickerton said it took extensive searching in SA to document some roadside areas where the rare daisy still grew.

"Lo and behold it turned up outside a farmer's gate in the mid-north and since then we've made more searches and found six roadside populations," he said.